The weekly messenger. [volume] (St. Martinsville [i.e. St. Martinville] La.) 1886-1948, 1887-09-24
THE COST OF SWELL CLOTHES.
Fifth Avenue Tailor CharGcs-Tail.
ors who No Longer Say Pants"
from the y. Y. SUM

From the y. \. sun
This is the dull time Of the year in
d.. tailor custom trade, and many work
m,a are ont of employment until the
fall trade begins. One of these men,
who is also an officer in the Tailors'
Union, has been spending some of his
leisure in thought, and he gave to one
of our reporters some sActs about the
Fifth avenue and Bowery tailors.
"People seem to think" he said,
'that Fifth avenue tailOrs make all the
money, and that they charge exorbitant
prices for clothes. How often do You
hear of Fifth avenue tailor accumulat-
ing fortunel The wealthy tailors are
the men who make cheap clothes and
many of them. The ready-made cloth
ing men become wealthy, and the big
BOwery tailors get rich because they do
large business for cash, and they use
cheap materials. There is more profit
per cent. on S12 suit of clothes than
on $50, and as there are a hundred
cheap suits sold to one dear suit, the
man who manufactures the cheap cloth
ing makes the most money.
"A Fifth avenue tailor pays from 50
to SD for having coat made. $50 to
50 for trousers and almost rs much for
a waistcOat. Besides, he has Il cutter at
SO or SO a week. and enormous rent
to pay. His cloth and trimmings cost
him three or four times as much as
those used in Bowcry suit, and he has
to make many attentions to suit his
customers that cost forty cents an hour.
Against this rate of wages the Bowery
tailor hires cheap labor, and his hands
work in outside tenement houses. He
pays 80 or - cents for making trousers,
50 cents for n waistcoat and - or So for
a coat. This enables him to make up
made-to order suit at 81 at Il good
profit, and in five SD suits there is
much more profit than i'll one $50 suit.
His employees make SO to so a week at
the most, while fine educated tiilor
on good work can run up to $50 and
$40. They are the artists mt the trade.
/ have known Fifth avenue tailors to
pay as high as SD for the making of an
overcoat, though that is not common.
These best grade tailors have women to
assist them in the sewing, to whom
they pay IS to SD week.
The fashion Of women having tailor
made clothes has sent the prices of work
mp few per cent. 1t was good thing
for the best tailors, as none but good
man is fit to make a suit for a lady. 1t
takes more care in the the fit than max
ing clothes for II man, and it gives a
good man employment when the trade
would be slack otherwise.
1.-The sweating system hurts the pay.
That is, when Il sub boss takes the work
and lets 1t ont to be done in tenement
houses. He paws next to nothing, and
his employees have to work fourteen and
sixteen hours Il day to make Sc or 81 a
week This is chiefly in the readymade
clothing line and does not affect the pay
of the best custom t:iilors. A tailor OF
the best class always dresses well; it
does not cost him as much as it does an
outsider. He buys his own goods and
trimmings. and by making his own
clothes i able to have for SO or $50 a
suit that would cost $50 to any one else.
There is one thing tie tailors feel
grateful to the San for. 1t has elevated
the tailor 10y improving the terms APP
piled to the various articles of clothing.
Especially is that SO in the matter of
trousers. No fine tailor says pants any
more, and the change has come sirce
the SIM ca,ed attention to the inaccu-
racy of sueh expressions as fine tailor
made panialoons' and 'gel!s' pauts .
speciality.